An ultra-low latency network is a particular type of computing network used, for example, by High Frequency Trading (HFT) customers to trade financial assets. In such applications, even slight delays in transmission time may have financial repercussions. In particular, having a faster data connection than a competitor may enable an HFT customer to increase order flow, liquidity, accelerate price discovery and capture opportunities during periods of volatility to gain a competitive advantage.
Conventional networking devices used in computing networks, even ultra-low latency networks, will incur undesirable latency by temporarily storing received data packets in network buffers to absorb arbitration, forwarding, or congestion delays. For example, a crossbar and port logic architecture may store a packet up to four times (e.g., input port, input crossbar, output crossbar, and output port). Additionally, shared memory architecture may result in storing data up to three times (e.g., at input port, buffer memory, and output port). Each of these storage operations adds undesired latency.